1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to structured information systems and, more particularly, to help systems for desktop and network based software applications.
2. Related Art
In the early days of computing, little thought was given to online user assistance, or help systems. Developers and users of the era were technically proficient and expected software to perform a business function. If they needed assistance on how to perform a task, they did not expect to get that assistance from the software itself, but from items such as “Read Me” files. Read Me files were simple text documents with basic instructions. These Read Me files were installed with the application, but accessed externally from the application.
As DOS applications evolved and became more complex, the Read Me files grew rapidly in size. The increased complexity of the applications required more instructions. The Read Me file reached a point where it became so large, it was very difficult to locate specific information. This led software manufacturers to attempt to develop online forms of information to make instructions available from within the application itself. Even DOS itself had a “Help” command in an attempt to assist users with text information.
The early attempts to provide software users with electronic information were well intentioned, but quickly created a confusing state where every software vendor implemented their help information in a different way. This forced software users to memorize various methods to gain access to this information depending on what application they were currently using. The end result was that much of this built-in assistance went unused.
As DOS computing evolved into Windows computing, Microsoft standardized the concept of online user assistance, and the modern concept of help systems was born. This early format, called WinHelp, standardized the methods for displaying information and the techniques for connecting that information to the software application. For the first time, software users could access helpful information in the same way no matter who the vendor of the software was. With the release of Windows 98, Microsoft released the HTML Help format to replace the aging WinHelp technology. HTML Help, despite its age, is the current format recommended by Microsoft for Windows desktop applications.
The formats mentioned above, WinHelp and HTML Help, were both created by Microsoft and are proprietary to the Microsoft Windows operating system. Neither of these formats supports software applications on other platforms such as Macintosh or Linux. They are also designed to support desktop software applications, and not the current web or web/desktop hybrid applications. Attempting to use Microsoft's HTML Help from a web server results in security warning dialogs and significant download delays. Other existing help formats, which have some cross-platform support, have issues in several areas: formats which use Java technology for navigation exhibit security issues with high security Firewalls, and those which use DHTML exhibit unwelcome visual differences across platforms and browsers.
From its humble beginnings as a network to share documents, the Internet has exploded as a tool for conducting business, sharing information, and streaming data. The software applications once tied to the PC desktop are now appearing on the Internet as network based applications. Early network based applications, like their early DOS counterparts, were very basic. Typically created from standard HTML, JavaScript, and form elements, these first attempts at providing software applications in a browser environment were rudimentary, yet mostly successful.
Documentation for these early network based applications was just as necessary as for the desktop applications that preceded them. The Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page, the modern equivalent to the Read Me file, was born. As the complexity of network based applications continued to increase, the size of the FAQ pages also increased. The FAQ page was reaching the same limitations that the Read Me file had suffered from during the evolution of desktop applications.
Just as desktop applications rapidly outgrew the Read Me file, the complexity of web-applications has outpaced the ability of the FAQ page to keep up. New feature-rich web applications require the same robust forms of user-assistance that people have come to expect from the desktop. However, authors attempting to create help systems for web applications have run up against many of the same issues as desktop help authors: help formats which use Java technology for navigation exhibit security issues with high security Firewalls, and those which use DHTML exhibit unwelcome visual differences across platforms and browsers. Additionally, they were unable to make the help system as visually appealing as their web application.
Therefore, the industry has created a need for a structured information system with the power of a desktop application that is cross-browser and cross-platform compatible and capable of implementation over a network or as a stand-alone application.